History & Culture Audiobooks | Biography & Memoir

Harriett Tubman: The Moses of Her People

Harriet Tubman was born a slave. She and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from slavery on September 17, 1849. When her brothers later decided to return to slavery, she followed, but not for long for she soon escaped again. Once free, she brought refugees from slavery in Maryland to freedom in Canada. In the fall of 1851, Tubman returned for the first time since her escape to find her husband, John. She once declared 'I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to - liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as song as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.' She and uncounted others crossed the Suspension Bridge in Buffalo into Canada to set themselves free. Names and details about most freedom seekers remain unknown. Their safety lay in secrecy. Tubman personally let about 70 people to freedom.

Sarah H. Bradford (Author), Jim Hodges (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Brave Face: Two Cultures, Two Families, and the Iraqi Girl Who Bound Them Together

Barbara Marlowe was in her fifties when she saw the photo that changed her life. It was a photo of four-year-old Teeba Furat Fadhil, whose face, head, and hands had been severely burned during a roadside bombing in the Diyala Province of Iraq when she was just nineteen months old. It was Teeba's eyes that captivated Barbara. They were wide, dark, and soulful. They seemed to cry out with a message across continents: Help me. The story of Barbara responding to that call is as inspiring as it is improbable. With a powerful faith and determination, Barbara overcame obstacle after obstacle to bring Teeba to the United States for medical treatments-and to ultimately offer a home. A Brave Face includes material written by Teeba and her Iraqi mother, Dunia, at key moments in their stories. The audiobook also explores the connection forged between Barbara and Dunia over the past decade-a connection that has survived the strife of war and the horrors of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. In the end, this story highlights the power of love to reach across both cultures and continents.

Barbara Marlowe, Teeba Furat Marlowe (Author), Ginny Welsh, Morgan Fairbanks, Nan Gurley (Narrator)

Audiobook

In My Own Way

Macmillan Audio presents In My Own Way, Alan Watts's acclaimed autobiography, published for the first time in audio. In this audiobook, Alan Watts tracks his spiritual and philosophical evolution from a child of religious conservatives in rural England to a freewheeling spiritual teacher who challenged Westerners to defy convention and think for themselves. From early in this intellectual life, Watts shows himself to be a philosophical renegade and wide-ranging autodidact who came to Buddhism through the teachings of Christmas Humphreys and D. T. Suzuki. Told in a nonlinear style, In My Own Way wonderfully combines Watts' own brand of unconventional philosophy and often hilarious accounts of gurus, celebrities, psychedelic drug experiences, and wry observations of Western culture. A charming foreword written by Watts' father sets the tone of this warm, funny, and beautifully written story of a compelling figure who encouraged seekers to "follow your own weird" - something he always did himself, as his remarkable account of his life shows.

Alan Watts (Author), Jeremy Arthur (Narrator)

Audiobook

Herndon's Lincoln: Illustrated Edition Vol 1, Part 1

Abraham Lincoln called 'Billy' Herndon, "My man always above all other men on the globe." They were business partners for 16 years. After Lincoln's assassination Herndon did interviews with Lincoln's family and friends for this biography. Co-author Jesse Weik also conducted many original interviews. The result - although not without flaws - has been recognized as one of the most important biographies of The Great Emancipator ever published. Here for the first time is the audiobook performed 'in character' as Herndon, Lincoln, and the people who helped shape a great President. The story is also illustrated with many different genres of music - from frontier folk to orchestral to dramatic Americana - providing an entertaining listening experience about a crucial era in American history.

Jesse W. Weik, William Herndon (Author), Chris Blair (Narrator)

Audiobook

Aleister Crowley: The Life and Legacy of the Notorious Cult Leader and Novelist

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" - William Shakespeare. Hamlet Any work about the mercurial Aleister Crowley is better off being labeled a "story" than a "biography" thanks to the impossibility of being sure that anything one reads about him is true. The basic recorded facts, including birth date, educational records, and published works, are reliable indicators that can be likened to stars guiding a lost desert traveler if the sky is clear. For the rest, one is wandering in the wilderness. He has been labeled a Satanist, a sociopath, a drug addict, a murderer, and, not to put too fine a point on it; "the wickedest man on earth" by several prominent newspapers. He has also been hailed as the prophet of the New Age charged with bringing about the spiritual awakening of humanity, a brilliant writer, an intrepid mountaineer, a heroic MI6/MI5 agent, and a gifted magician. He even launched his own religion, called Thelema, which persists to this day. As such, a story about Aleister Crowley must include a timeline of important events in his life, at least as accurately as possible, while examining the several characteristics and aspects of his life and work that make him so influential. Once reviled and discarded by all but his most fervent followers, Crowley's writings reemerged as the subject of serious scholarship in the 1990s. Aleister Crowley: The Life and Legacy of the Notorious Cult Leader and Novelist profiles one of the 20th century's most colorful and controversial figures. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Crowley like never before.

Charles River Editors (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Strangers in the Storm: Love and Survival on Mount Rainier

When strangers Jared Rund and Diane McKenney met on Mount Rainier in Washington state, neither of them knew where the next few days on one of the most dangerous peaks in North America would lead them. Caught in a blizzard and detached from the rest of their party, the two are forced to spend a bewildering and frightening night high on the 14,411 foot peak with nothing to save them except their own will and preparation. But sometimes it is the toughest of times that lead to the best. And for Jared and Diane, if a mountain blizzard couldn't stop them then nothing would. Read this amazing story of survival against the odds, and of a love that couldn't be overcome by a deadly storm or the thousand miles that would later separate them.

Diane Mckenney, Jared Rund (Author), J. Arquin (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Pianist of Yarmouk

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Pianist of Yarmouk by Aeham Ahmad, read by Nezar Alderazi. One morning on the outskirts of Damascus, two starving friends were walking through their war-ravaged city. They entered a once familiar street that had now been turned to rubble - concrete bridges towered over them like tombs and houses were turned inside out. One of them, Aeham, turned to the only comfort he had left - his piano - and composed a song of hope. It was a song that would reach beyond the rubble and bring a message of solidarity to his fellow Syrians, and all those suffering the devastation of war. Growing up in a close family in Damascus, Aeham had everything he needed. At a young age, with the fervent support of his father, he fell in love with the piano. Yet, as the years passed the brutal civil war began to tear apart both Aeham's city and his life until he lost friends, family and eventually his home. Forced to leave his country alone and seek safety, he was left with nothing but his gifts as a musician. This is the captivating account of Aeham's life; a gripping portrait of a man's search for peace, and of a country that has been fiercely torn apart by war.

Aeham Ahmad (Author), Nezar Alderazi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland's Patron Saint

A gripping biography that brings together the most recent research to shed provocative new light on the life of Saint Patrick Saint Patrick was, by his own admission, a controversial figure. Convicted in a trial by his elders in Britain and hounded by rumors that he settled in Ireland for financial gain, the man who was to become Ireland's patron saint battled against great odds before succeeding as a missionary. Saint Patrick Retold draws on recent research to offer a fresh assessment of Patrick's travails and achievements. This is the first biography in nearly fifty years to explore Patrick's career against the background of historical events in late antique Britain and Ireland. Roy Flechner examines the likelihood that Patrick, like his father before him, might have absconded from a career as an imperial official responsible for taxation, preferring instead to migrate to Ireland with his family's slaves, who were his source of wealth. Flechner leaves no stone unturned as he takes readers on a riveting journey through Romanized Britain and late Iron Age Ireland, and he considers how best to interpret the ambiguous literary and archaeological evidence from this period of great political and economic instability, a period that brought ruin for some and opportunity for others. Rather than a dismantling of Patrick's reputation, or an argument against his sainthood, Flechner's biography raises crucial questions about self-image and the making of a reputation. From boyhood deeds to the challenges of a missionary enterprise, Saint Patrick Retold steps beyond established narratives to reassess a notable figure's life and legacy.

Roy Flechner (Author), Gerry O'brien (Narrator)

Audiobook

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays

From the cofounder of VerySmartBrothas.com, and one of the most read writers on race and culture at work today, a provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be Black (and male) in America. For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as “How should I react here, as a professional black person?” and “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?” are forever relevant. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker chronicles Young’s efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. It’s a condition that’s sometimes stretched to absurd limits, provoking the angst that made him question if he was any good at the “being straight” thing, as if his sexual orientation was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble move or knitting; creating the farce where, as a teen, he wished for a white person to call him a racial slur just so he could fight him and have a great story about it; and generating the surreality of watching gentrification transform his Pittsburgh neighborhood from predominantly Black to “Portlandia . . . but with Pierogies.” And, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white. From one of our most respected cultural observers, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a hilarious and honest debut that is both a celebration of the idiosyncrasies and distinctions of Blackness and a critique of white supremacy and how we define masculinity.

Damon Young (Author), Damon Young (Narrator)

Audiobook

How to Treat People: A Nurse at Work

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of How to Treat People by Molly Case. As a teenager Molly case is admitted to hospital for an operation that will save her life. Nearly a decade later, she finds herself in the operating theatre again, this time as a trainee nurse. In How To Treat People, Molly brings together these extraordinary moments, when the professional and the personal become inseparable. She introduces us to patients with whom we share the pain, fear but also the life-affirming moments of illness. And when her father arrives on the high dependency unit of the hospital where Molly works we realise, most profoundly, that she is no longer there just to alleviate the patient's suffering but to be a part of it. In the healing of a leg wound, in newly-sewn heart valves, and in the last breaths of a person, Molly Case illustrates the intricacies of the human condition and what really matters to us when we are at our most vulnerable. Weaving together medical history, art, memoir and science, How to Treat People explores the oscillating rhythms of life and death, the importance of what we impart and the legacies we leave behind.

Molly Case (Author), Molly Case (Narrator)

Audiobook

We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood

In the tradition of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Alice Taylor's To School Through the Fields, Tom Phelan's We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It is a heartfelt and masterfully written memoir of growing up in Ireland in the 1940s. Tom Phelan, who was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as he sought to wrest a livelihood from a farm that was often wet, muddy, and back-breaking. It was a time before rural electrification, the telephone, and indoor plumbing; a time when the main modes of travel were bicycle and animal cart; a time when small farmers struggled to survive and turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard; a time when the Church exerted enormous control over Ireland. We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It recounts Tom's upbringing in an isolated, rural community from the day he was delivered by the local midwife. With tears and laughter, it speaks to the strength of the human spirit in the face of life's adversities.

Tom Phelan (Author), Gerard Doyle (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine

"An exceptionally accessible history of the Roman Empire...Much of Ten Caesars reads like a script for Game of Thrones...This superb summation of four centuries of Roman history, a masterpiece of compression, confirms Barry Strauss as the foremost academic classicist writing for the general reader today." —Andrew Roberts, The Wall Street Journal Bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. Barry Strauss's Ten Caesars is the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople. During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. The empire reached from modern-day Britain to Iraq, and gradually emperors came not from the old families of the first century but from men born in the provinces, some of whom had never even seen Rome. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus. In the imperial era Roman women—mothers, wives, mistresses—had substantial influence over the emperors, and Strauss also profiles the most important among them, from Livia, Augustus's wife, to Helena, Constantine's mother. But even women in the imperial family faced limits and the emperors often forced them to marry or divorce for purely political reasons. Rome's legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost. Ten Caesars is essential history as well as fascinating biography.

Barry Strauss (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

Audiobook

History & Culture Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir